Spring Has Bloomed

In the month of March, so far, I’ve attended two seminars offered by Professional Women Photographers (PWP), ably organized by Barbara Nelson. One, Social Media and Digital Marketing, was a how to blog, get on Facebook, LinkedIn and all about Tweeter. Another, Creative Marketing Techniques for Survival, focused on marketing techniques using social media. For many years, Barbara has been an acquaintance of Dorian Benkoil, Co-Founder of Teeming Media. Dorian spoke about the importance of using social media in a business environment, and through his father, commercial and art photographer Robert Stahman, he naturally could highlight overlooked opportunities for emerging photographers. As social media have become quite phenomenal in the past few years, not all of us are taking advantage of the chance to connect to other photographers and potential clients.


I’ve also attended the Street Photography Workshop given by David Wells. Also, sponsored by PWP. It was quite an invigorating day, as David is a stimulating teacher who has a great reservoir of information. We were given an assignment to photograph outdoors according to his “rules.” I spent this past Saturday morning at the Union Square Farmers’ Market. David told us, first, to look for “choke” points. I believe the farmers’ market qualifies. I continually saw little vignettes unfolding, but I must wait for David’s comments at the follow-up session. The assignment has to be repeated in the exact same location, so I’ll be returning to the farmers’ market this coming Saturday. I’m hoping it’s sunny and cool again.
[Image: Union Square Farmers' Market, Shopping for Orchids ( f5.6; 1/320; 53mm; ISO 200). These ladies were great; I took several photos of them making their choice.  David advised us to shoot wide open (f5.6, in my case, I have a slow lens) in order to blur the background.  This is evident in some of my other photos from the shoot on Saturday.]